North Warren EMS board not able to do business

David Gross, a member of the North Warren EMS board representing Chestertown, tells the Horicon board there is a need for alternate board members. He said attendance at board meetings has been low, even halting the beard from doing necessary business.

Photo by Christopher South

HORICON | A North Warren EMS board member has been updating towns that support the North Warren EMS saying there is a need to have board members who are able to attend meetings in order to take care of business.

David Gross told the Horicon Town Board on Jan. 18 that there was no quorum for a December 2017 meeting, and it barely made a quorum for the January session.

“We have an ambulance with a blown engine, and can’t even authorize taking action on it,” Gross said.

Gross said the Town of Horicon representative, Gary Frenz, left town for six months and would not be able to attend meetings all that time.

He made the same report to the Town of Chester Board, saying alternate board members needed to be appointed in order to conduct business.

As a result, he said, the board has been discussing Essex County’s efforts to create a countywide EMS district.

Chestertown Supervisor Craig Leggett, who is the chairman of the county’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, said the Warren County Board of Supervisors generally supported efforts by State Sen. Betty Little (R-Queensbury) to pass legislation at the state level allowing counties to create special districts.

A resolution supporting that effort should be on the Warren County Board of Supervisors’ agenda in February. Leggett said he believed lawmakers would support the idea of creating a countywide district.

“From all that I’ve heard, so far, yes,” he said. “We are coming into a new age now.”

The new age includes a high percentage of seasonal residents in some towns, meaning the pool of volunteers is low. Horicon Supervisor Matt Simpson said he was aware of the shortage of volunteers when Gross raised the issue. Simpson said, while he sympathized with Gross, the town was not the cause of the problem.